The Ultimate Muscle Meal... a Salad on Roids

Today, I just wanted to share with you my special muscle meal of the week, and it actually comes in the form of a salad.

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about Six-Pack Abs

I know the ladies will love this idea, but for all of you guys out there that think eating a salad makes you less of a man... Well, you haven't tried the ultimate "salad on roids" yet!
Keep in mind that this salad is not low in calories. It's not low in fat. It's not low in carbs.
And guess what...that's the whole point!
It's not low in anything, but it sure as hell is HIGH in everything under the sun that's good for your body... just about every vitamin, mineral, antioxidant, and phytonutrient on the planet! And that means your body will receive all the nutrition it needs to maintain optimal hormonal balance, function at it's highest capacity, keep your appetite satisfied for hours, and prevent any unwanted cravings.
Keep in mind that last point... when you fill your body with all of the nutrients it needs on a daily basis, you pretty much totally eliminate cravings! This happens because your body is satisfied and doesn't need to crave any more food, because it has all of the nutrients it needs.
I've experienced this myself. Years ago, I used to crave sweets ALL THE TIME. But now that I eat the balanced diet that I do these days, I can't say that I've had a craving in at least 5 years! No joke.
Alright, here's the recipe:
The Ultimate Muscle Salad

• approx 1 cup spinach leaves
• approx 1 cup mixed leaf lettuce
• shredded carrots
• 1/2 of a ripe avocado, diced
• 2 hard boiled eggs, diced (preferrably organic, cage free)
• 3 Tbsp chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• top with homemade dressing made of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo's Choice Oil Blend (3/4 of total liquid should come from the vinegar) - read this article about the type of salad dressing to NEVER eat

Mix it all together and you've got one delicious and ridiculously nutritious salad. For an extra shot of antioxidants, wash it all down with some homemade iced green/white/oolong tea lightly sweetened with the natural sweetener Stevia or a little touch of raw honey.
Alright, now let's look at the approx macronutrient breakdown:
Prot: 23 g., Carbs: 46 g., Fiber: 12 g., Fat: 45 g., Calories: 640
Now before you throw your arms up in disgust and call me crazy for recommending such a high fat, high calorie meal, keep in mind to scale back the portion sizes for your own caloric goal. The portions above are simply the portions that I use considering that my maintenance caloric intake is around 3000 calories/day. If your maintenance is 2000 calories/day, then scale back the portions accordingly.
Also, I don't care about the high fat content of this meal... because every last gram of the fat in this meal is VERY healthy... from the pecans, the olive oil, the Udo's oil, the fresh avocado... and yes, even the fat from the egg yolks is good for you!
All of this healthy fat makes it a very hunger-satisfying meal, causing you to eat less for the remainder of the day (that's right... no cravings later that night!).
How about the carbs? Well, out of a total of 46 grams, you've got approx 12 grams of fiber. That's a pretty good ratio. Also, the healthy fats and protein in this meal will slow down the carbohydrate digestion, giving you a healthy glycemic response and steady controlled blood sugar.
Alright, so you're probably also wondering why there isn't a larger amount of protein. After all, protein is all the rage with bodybuilders, right.
Well, actually 23 grams isn't too shabby, especially considering 14 grams of that comes from the highly bioavailable protein from the hard boiled eggs. Also consider that this meal has a whole lot of healthy fats, which increases the utilization of your protein. This happens because your body does not need to use your protein for energy, and can instead use it for muscle building & maintenance, and all of the other various functions that amino acids are needed for in the body.
Overall, with this meal, you've got a great mix of healthy fats, good fibrous carbs, quality protein, and a huge diversity of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other trace nutrients.
If you enjoyed this idea today, feel free to share this link to your friends, family, and coworkers that might enjoy it.

If you liked this healthy lean-body meal idea, there are 84 other healthy and quick meal ideas in my popular Truth about Six Pack Abs Manual. If you don't already have a copy, check out some of the Truth About Abs reader reviews right now.
I'll be back in touch soon. In the meantime... train hard, eat smart, have fun, and enjoy life!



Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - TruthAboutAbs.com

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These 15 WHITE foods protect your cells & flatten your stomach

As I was flipping through the channels the other day, I stopped on a news station where a prominent Registered Dietician was giving nutrition tips for a "summer ready body".  I always find it interesting to hear what other health professionals are advising to their clients, and even more interesting was when she stated that one rule she requires EVERY client of hers to follow is the "no white foods" rule.

Really?  What about cauliflower?  And how about cancer-fighting onions and garlic, or probiotic-loaded plain Kefir?

I can just imagine one of her sweet, good-intentioned clients saying "No no" to cauliflower because her dietician told her "no white foods".

Of course, I understand that the rule is a good one when applied to processed "white" foods like bread, pasta, and crackers, but believe it or not this dietician went on to specifically outlaw such white foods as bananas and potatoes just because of their color!  Now I know that bananas and potatoes are a bit carb-heavy, but for those of us that exercise hard, these types of carbohydrates can actually be beneficial for post-workout recovery.  Another benefit of both bananas and potatoes is that they are natural non-processed foods packed with potassium and a boatload of other vitamins and minerals.

For those of us that are a bit more "carb-sensitive" such as diabetics or people that are sedentary, it is best to keep bananas and potatoes at a minimum, but for the rest of us, they can be perfectly healthy when eaten at the right time of day.

Additionally, here are a host of other WHITE foods to fuel your metabolism and protect your cells with antioxidants:

Veggies such as onions, cauliflower, garlic, turnips, parsnips, and mushrooms are all loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber while yielding next to zero calories.  Fill your plate with these white gems, and then pile on some more!

White beans are another white food example that is high in protein, very low glycemic (so they're easy on your blood sugar), and high in fiber while being absolutely packed with antioxidants.

Other healthy white foods...

Organic grass-fed dairy products such as cottage cheese, and other cheeses are all very high in protein and healthy fats while other fermented dairy products such as plain yogurt and plain kefir offer hefty amounts of probiotics to boot!

Then there are white seeds like pumpkin seeds and even white chia seeds that pack a superfood punch rich in omega-3s, protein, minerals, antioxidants and fiber.

And lastly (but certainly not least!) are the many varieties of white fish that are great for you -- another great metabolism-boosting source of protein, but here's something you may not know:  While we've been told that fish is one of the healthiest food choices around (and for the most part it is), there are specific types of fish -- all very common -- that you should literally NEVER eat due to incredibly high levels of contamination that can and WILL hammer the delicate cells of your body with toxic inflammation...

In the end, toxic inflammation build up from contaminants in food like heavy metals (as well as unhealthy vegetable oils) contributes to achy joints, premature aging of the skin (and less visible organs like the heart, kidneys, and liver), difficulty shedding excess weight, cognitive decline, forgetfulness, feeling blue and moody, and so much more...

Do you want to find 101 more anti-aging foods CLICK HERE


Eat healthy,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

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2 Common Foods in Your Diet That May be Making You Gain Weight and Get Sick

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-seller:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

Of course, you've probably heard a million times now how bad trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are for your health... so I'm not going to give you that same old story.
Instead, we need to look at a couple common foods that are probably in your diet in large quantities and may be causing major problems such as weight gain, headaches, sicknesses, indigestion, etc, etc... and those possible culprits are:

Wheat and Dairy
Don't worry, I'm NOT going to tell you that both of these staples need to be eliminated permanently from your diet... but read on to see an interesting test that may help you a great deal...
In all of my years of personal training and nutrition counseling, if I had to choose a couple VERY simple dietary changes that have made the biggest difference for my clients in allowing them to FINALLY see fat loss results (and other health problems solved), it would be this following test:
1. Test removing all wheat products from your diet for 2 entire weeks, and take notice of how you feel, look, and your body composition.  This means removing all bread, pasta, crackers, cookies, cakes, muffins, bagels, and other wheat-based foods, unless they are 100% wheat-free.  Don't worry, it's only 2 weeks for this test... you'll survive!  Just beware of gluten-free versions of these junk foods unless they are low-carb as well.
2. Test removing all dairy from your diet for 2 entire weeks, and take notice of how you feel, look, and your body composition.  Don't worry, we'll talk in a minute about how to keep dairy in your life if you find out that you are sensitive to some forms of it.
The best way to do this is to eliminate them both for 2 full weeks, and then reintroduce one at a time so that you can determine if one of them or both wheat and dairy are causing negative health effects for you.
Wheat and dairy are easily 2 of the biggest intolerances that a large percentage of the population has.
Now this does NOT mean that I'm saying you have to entirely eliminate wheat and dairy for the rest of your life, but what I am saying is that this is an important test to do for about 2 weeks to gauge if you see some dramatic changes in your body fat percentage, how you look and feel overall, your energy levels, and other health and digestive issues.
If you do the 2-week elimination of wheat and dairy and don't feel that it helped you at all or made you feel better, then you can probably do ok on small to moderate amounts of each.
Most people do not realize this, but a large percentage of the population has at least some degree of intolerance to the gluten in wheat and several other grains. The biggest offender is wheat though, as it's in such a large percentage of the average western diet... from breads, to pastas, to bagels, to cakes, wraps, cereals, etc, etc.
Most people don't have the extent of intolerance that a celiac has, but most people feel much better, improve dozens of health problems, and also lose fat faster when they eliminate wheat from their diet.
In fact, I just had a client last week tell me that when she eliminated wheat from her diet, her chronic headaches disappeared almost instantly... these are headaches she's been having for years, and after eliminating wheat from her diet, they are gone (along with some body fat that she lost too!).
You can also read this article about my dad and how he reduced wheat in his diet and saw immediate reduction in his love handles and eliminated his chronic joint pain that he'd had for years.
What about me?  Do I still eat wheat?
Well, what I personally do is try to only eat wheat on cheat days, which many times means when I'm out at restaurants or at parties, barbeques, etc.  Since wheat is so integral in the typical western diet, it's almost impossible to avoid when eating out or at other people's houses.
But I have virtually ZERO wheat products in my own house usually (with the exception of an occasional piece of sprouted grain bread once or twice a week).  Anything is simple to avoid at least 90% of the time, when it doesn't even exist in your cabinets!
Make sure to also read this article which shows 11 ways that wheat HARMS your body -- everything from joint inflammation, digestive issues, acid reflux, acne problems, belly fat, diabetes, and more.  It's a must read article!
Now with as anti-wheat as I am, I'm actually a huge fan of dairy... However, ONLY if the dairy is raw milk or raw cheese and from grass-fed cows. Did you know that many people who "think" they are lactose intolerant actually can drink raw milk without a problem?  This is because the live enzymes and friendly bacteria in raw milk aid in the digestion of the lactose and the proteins in milk. These enzymes and friendly bacteria are destroyed in pasteurized milk, which makes it more difficult to digest for many people.

I know this is a controversial topic, so you need to obviously do your own research...but check out the realmilk.com site to make your own decision about raw dairy.
If I can't get raw dairy, I choose to go mostly dairy-free (with the exception of non-sweetened full-fat yogurt and kefir, which are easier to digest due to the live probiotics in them). But I avoid commercial milk because I feel that the pasteurized, homogenized milk is not suitable for long term consumption in terms of health.  Many scientists believe that homogenized milk fat is the most dangerous type due to the machine-created tiny particles of fat that enter the blood stream more readily, which is not an issue with non-homogenized milk.
Keep in mind that yogurt, cheese, and kefir generally use non-homogenized milk, so I view them as more acceptable and healthy (as long as grass-fed) than homogenized milk itself.  And of course, yogurt, cheese, and kefir have good probiotics, so are beneficial in that respect too.
By the way, you can always search to see if raw milk co-ops or farms are available in your area on RealMilk.com.  You'd be surprised at how many co-ops are available that deliver from rural areas to urban areas.  It's important to make sure that the farm is reputable and certified (in some states) to produce raw milk. Most raw milk farms are the cleanest operations in the entire dairy industry.
oh, and for the "germo-phobes" out there... I've been drinking gallons upon gallons of raw, full fat milk for about 8 years now (I drink about 1-2 gallons per week when I can get it, which is only a couple weeks a month, so I naturally cycle my dairy intake), and I've never once gotten sick from raw milk, nor has anybody else that I know that's been drinking it long term... so to all of these so-called "experts" out there telling you that "there's a reason they pasteurize milk, because it's dangerous if not"... well, they obviously don't know what they're talking about.  If it was "dangerous", I surely would have gotten sick at least once after 8 years of drinking it.
Plus, the full-fat milk certainly has not made me fatter either... I used to foolishly drink skim milk only years, but now for the last 8 years, I've drank nothing but FULL-FAT raw grass-fed milk, and I'm easily in the best shape of my life now and leaner than ever.  And I also use FULL-FAT grass-fed cream in my coffee each day, and it's certainly not adding any body fat on me!  In fact, the healthy CLA fats and vitamin K2 in full-fat grass-fed cream is VERY healthy for you, as vitamin K2 from grass-fed dairy fat has been shown to reduce heart disease risk and increase your body's utilization of vitamin D.
Regarding raw vs pasteurized milk, people are more likely to get sick from pasteurized milk, because mass factory farms are generally dirtier operations with animals that are in poorer health than grass-fed raw milk farms.
And don't forget the high levels of fat-burning, muscle building CLA in full-fat, raw, grass fed milk (and omega-3's)!
Back from the tangent... I think this elimination of wheat and (pasteurized, homogenized) dairy is one of the most important tests anyone can easily do to see if wheat and dairy are negatively affecting them. After all, it's only 2 weeks to test yourself!
A couple quick things to note:
1. Eggs are NOT dairy... I'm not sure why so many people seem to think that eggs are a dairy product (maybe because they're in the same section at the grocery store?), but there is absolutely no dairy in eggs... eggs are basically meat if you want to categorize them.  Regardless, eggs are practically a perfect food in terms of nutrition density.
here's an entire article I did on whole eggs vs egg whites if you haven't seen it.
2. When trying to eliminate wheat, this usually means that almost ALL processed foods have to be eliminated because wheat components are in so many processed foods.  One way that I personally get around this is to satisfy my cravings for baked goods with low-carb, gluten-free versions that use coconut flour and almond flour as the base instead of wheat flour.
Check out this article to see how to get delicious healthy brownies and cakes that are low-carb, gluten-free and even support a fat-burning metabolism!
Good luck with the test if you try it!  Many people find it to be one of the best things they've done for their health.
If you liked today's article feel free to share this article below with your friends and family:

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Harvard Study Shows an Obscure Trick

Harvard Study Shows an Obscure Trick to Make ANY Exercise Program or Workout MUCH More Effective

Hotel cleaning attendants got "tricked" by researchers into burning more fat in 4 weeks. They also lowered their blood pressure, and improved their waist to hip ratio. This article explains what factor caused these benefits!

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen  &  Do This, Burn Fat: 101 Sneaky Weight Loss Tricks

I've read about this very interesting Harvard University study about exercise multiple times in the past, but I was just recently reminded about this study again while reading the fascinating book called 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman.
Pay attention, because this actually shows a pretty powerful trick that you can use to literally make ANY workout or exercise program a LOT more effective and results producing.
According to the book 59 Seconds, here's how this study was carried out:
Researchers at Harvard University studied over 80 hotel room cleaning attendants from 7 different hotels.  The hotel room attendants naturally received a lot of exercise from their daily jobs, which included cleaning an average of 15 rooms per day at about 25 minutes per room.  This work involves a good deal of exercise in carrying things, scrubbing, lifting objects, vacuuming, and so on.
The researchers knew the hotel maids led an active lifestyle from their work, but also questioned whether most of the maids may not realize that their work was actually good for their health.  The researchers set out to study the effects on the hotel attendants of making them very aware of how beneficial the exercise they got while working was for their health, and to see if this increased the results that they actually received from the exercise.
Basically, the question was... Would telling them that their work was great exercise improve their health, lower their blood pressure, and help them to lose weight compared to the hotel attendants that didn't realize their work was in fact "exercise"?
The hotel attendants were split into 2 groups:
1. This group was informed about the benefits of exercise and told how many calories they were burning while doing their hotel cleaning work each day. They were specifically told how many calories activities such as changing sheets, vacumming, and scrubbing bathrooms were burning each hour.
The researchers also wanted this information to stick in their heads daily, so they gave the attendants a handout showing the quantities of calories they were burning doing each activity of their jobs.  They were also shown a poster daily that reinforced how many calories they were burning.
2.  The control group of hotel cleaning attendants was simply informed of the benefits of exercise, but were NOT told how many calories they were burning doing their work, and also were NOT told that their work actually constituted a good form of exercise.
The researchers studied the existing lifestyles of all of the participants in both groups as well as giving them various health tests, including weigh-ins.
The study was conducted for 4 weeks.  The researchers made sure that none of the participants had actually changed their exercise habits, smoking, or eating habits outside of work.  This assured that there was no external lifestyle factor that could have accounted for the results of the study.
In addition, the hotel managers assured that the workloads of both groups stayed the same throughout the entire experiment.
Here are the VERY interesting results:
It turned out that the group of hotel cleaning attendants that was informed daily about the calorie-burning effects of their normal work routines ended up losing a significant amount of weight, lowered their body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, and decreased their blood pressure.
The control group of hotel attendants that was not told about the calories they burned while doing their work showed NONE of these improvements.
Wow... very interesting huh!
Remember that each of these groups received the SAME amount of exercise and did not alter their lifestyle, eating habits, drinking habits, smoking, or anything else.  The only thing that was different between the 2 groups was simply that the one group was constantly being reminded of how beneficial the exercise during their work was for their health and how many calories they were burning, and therefore their minds were busy believing in the benefits of it.
This actually doesn't surprise me... this is classic placebo effect at work here, and reinforces how powerful our brains are in relation to the results we get from exercise, food, supplements, etc.
How to use this info to burn more fat in your workouts, build more lean muscle, and improve your health more from exercise and nutrition
There's a good lesson in this study.  If you strongly believe in your mind that the workouts that you are doing are drastically improving your body, your results will increase dramatically from those workouts.
The trick I've used over the years is to really "get mental" during your workouts and believe strongly that the exercise you are doing is transforming your body into a lean chiseled machine. (This is assuming that you're actually doing legit workouts such as Truth About Abs routines and not just wasting time reading a magazine while pedaling away on a boring exercise bike or treadmill).
So, if you want to burn more fat, not only do you need to workout intensely (for your individual capabilities), but you also need to mentally visualize the results you're getting, the bodyfat you are burning, and really strongly believe in how powerful the workout routine that you are doing really is for your body.
Along the same lines, if your goal is to build more muscle, then you really need to strongly believe in your mind at how powerfully your workouts are helping you to build muscle.
And this can be applied to your food intake too!
Don't underestimate how powerful your mind really is... If you are eating truly healthy foods such as those detailed in my Fat-Burning Kitchen manual, make sure that you are also actively thinking in your mind about how those foods are dramatically helping your body, making you stronger, making you leaner, improving your energy and health, and so on.
Don't ignore this... this will drastically improve your results if you actively think about how truly healthy the foods you are eating every day are and how they are changing your body.  This is assuming that you actually are eating truly healthy foods every day.
Another benefit of this "mental programming" is that it trains you to actually want to avoid junk foods, because you want to be able to think about how everything you eat is improving your body instead.
So there you go... an interesting study that shows how you can legitimately increase your results from your exercise and nutrition by just actively thinking about the benefits of both every day!
But this trick I just showed you is just one of many more unique and powerful tricks to burn more fat, boost your metabolism and get the body shape that you've always wanted...
Here's What to do Now...
On the next page below, you're going to discover some extremely SIMPLE tricks that you can apply to your daily life to BALANCE your hormones, BOOST your metabolism, and fire up your fat-burning machine inside your body...  there are 101 total "tricks" you can use to flatten your stomach faster and get lean, including these:

• Fat-Burning Trick #1:    The simple twist to your morning routine (takes less than 1 minute) that INSTANTLY jump-starts your metabolism and boosts fat-burning by as much as 30%!
• Fat-Burning Trick #5:    The tasty beverage you've been WARNED to stay away from...but new-found studies reveal the shocking health benefits jam packed in this potent anti-aging & fat-burning "elixer"!
• Fat-Burning Trick #15:    The amazing "super-food" that in one clinical study, dissolved away more than 10 extra pounds in 12 weeks...WITHOUT DIETING or any other lifestyle changes!
• Fat-Burning Trick #99:    The candle (yes, candle) that can help maximize your body’s own natural release of age-defying, fat-melting growth hormone and have less fat on your body within the next 8 hours!
   

Some of these fat-burning tricks are odd, some are crazy, some involve your diet, others exercise, and some involve your mind - but they all have one thing in common... they are all SIMPLE!
All you have to do to discover those tricks, and so many more, is head to the Next Page...

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